"Draw the blind down." Miss Gailey, a spinster of superior breeding and a teacher of dancing, had in the distant past been an intimate friend of Mrs.Lessways.

The friendship was legendary in the house, and the grand quarrel which had finally put an end to it dated in Hilda's early memories like a historical event.

For many years the two had not exchanged a word.
Mrs.Lessways lit the gas, and the china and the white cloth and the coloured fruit-jelly and the silver spoons caught the light and threw it off again, with gaiety.
"Has she swept the hearth?
Yes, she has," said Mrs.Lessways, glancing round at the red fire.
Hilda sat down to wait, folding her hands as it were in meekness.

In a few moments Florrie entered with the teapot and the hot-water jug.

The child wore proudly a new white apron that was a little too long for her, and she smiled happily at Mrs.Lessways' brief compliment on her appearance and her briskness.